NHL Trade Deadline Winners

The trade deadline for the NHL has come and gone and while the amount of big names being moved may have been down from years past, there was still a lot of deals that were made that could wind up helping a lot of teams. Lets take a look at three teams that improved themselves or their future the most today.

Calgary Flames
Acquired-Olli Jokinen(C), Jordan Leopold(D)
Traded-2009 or 2010 1st, 2009 2nd round pick, Brandon Prust(RW), Matthew Lombardi(C), Lawrence Nycholat(D), Ryan Wilson(D)
--Jarome Iginla and Mikka Kiprusoff aren't getting any younger and the window of opportunity is closing in Calgary. The Flames needed to add a top line center for Iginla and they got an 80 point player to fill the job. Jokinen did not do as well as many hoped in his brief time in Phoenix scoring 21 goals and adding 21 assists in 57 games. The Flames hope that being on a playoff team for the first time in his career as well as playing with Iginla lights a fire under him. Leopold is a former Calgary player as he played three years with the Flames. Leopold adds high quality depth to a defense that desperately needed another top 4 defenseman.

Phoenix Coyotes
Acquired: 2009 or 2010 1st round pick, 2011 2nd round pick, 2009 4th round pick, Matt Lombardi(C), Brandon Prust(RW), Nigel Dawes(LW), Petr Prucha(LW), Dmitri Kalinin(D), Scottie Upshall(LW)
Traded: 2009 3rd round pick, Olli Jokinen(C), Daniel Carcillo(LW), Derek Morris(D), Mikael Tellqvist(G)
--The Coyotes realized that they were out of the playoff race and wisely traded off vets for good returns. The Olli Jokinen experiment just didn't work out as well as they hoped and they were able to get a pretty good package in return for him. Perhaps the trade of the day may have been the dealing of enforcer Daniel Carcillo to Philadelphia for Scottie Upshall and a 2011 2nd round pick. The pick could take 6-7 years to pan out but Upshall is a talented youngster and Carcillo is pretty much a goon. Phoenix continues to collect many solid young pieces as they build a bright future.

Edmonton Oilers
Added: 2009 2nd round pick, Patrick O'Sullivan(LW), Ales Kotalik(LW)
Traded: 2009 2nd round pick, 2009 5th round pick, Erik Cole(RW)
--The Oilers pretty much got Patrick O'Sullivan and Ales Kotalik for Erik Cole and a 5th round pick. Not bad at all. Cole, a soon to be UFA, had just 27 points in 63 games this year and it was unlikely that Edmonton was going to re-sign him. O'Sullivan collected 37 points in 62 games in LA and is signed for 2.388 million for the next 2 years. Kotalik is an UFA at the end of the year but the 6'2 forward has 32 points in 56 games including 18 on the power play.